Chancellor Ligon Duncan and the Reformed Theological Seminary Board of Trustees are pleased to announce that Dr. Mark Ian McDowell has accepted the call to serve as the Executive Director at our newest campus in Dallas, Texas. “Mark is a capable theologian with a pastor's heart for the church. He is passionately committed to theological education. Mark possesses the academic and pastoral credentials and experience that we need to lead this significant new work. He also has the energy for it,” Duncan said.

Mark McDowell is ordained as a teaching elder in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and has served at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, as an associate minister since 2012. At FPC Columbia, he has ministered alongside current and former RTS faculty including Sinclair Ferguson, Ralph Davis, and Derek Thomas. Mark earned his M.Div. from RTS Charlotte, his Th.M. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and his Ph.D. from Kings College at Aberdeen University in Systematic Theology.

In addition to giving leadership to RTS Dallas, Dr. McDowell will serve as Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, beginning to teach in the fall of 2017. “I am incredibly excited about participating in the vision and mission of RTS in Dallas. It is a tremendous privilege to be able to serve the local churches by training students in biblical and theological studies who are currently in, or are considering entering, the ministry,” McDowell said.

Mark is married to Monica and they have four boys: Nicholas, Cameron, Patrick and Oliver. He is a native of Northern Ireland and avidly follows Manchester United and Ulster Rugby.

Established in 1966, Reformed Theological Seminary is now the largest reformed evangelical seminary in the world. RTS is committed to preparing pastors and church leaders with a mind for truth, a heart for God and a life for ministry. The RTS student body is drawn from about 40 denominations at any given time, and the Seminary aims to serve the whole of the evangelical community, especially the Presbyterian and Reformed family. RTS is committed to the inerrancy of Scripture and Reformed Theology, and from that standpoint offers rigorous and reverent graduate theological education, through nine degree programs across multiple campuses and online.